The mother of an inmate who hanged himself in his jail cell at Orleans Parish Prison in 2013 has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Sheriff Marlin Gusman, claiming the suicide was preventable.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in federal court on Monday, claims Gusman's office was on notice about inadequate handling of mentally ill inmates by the time Clifton Morgan killed himself in the troubled lockup. A consent decree mandating widespread changes was in place three months before Morgan's Sept. 28, 2013 death.

Morgan, 27, was arrested two weeks prior on a charge of simple burglary. He repeatedly told the jail's medical staff that he was suicidal and asked for an anti-psychotic medication prescribed to him for the past three years, the lawsuit claims. Despite these warnings, the sheriff's office failed to provide him with adequate treatment and left him unmonitored in a cell that was not "suicide resistant," according to the lawsuit.

Gusman's office on Tuesday (July 29) declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The attorneys who filed suit, Stephen Haedicke and Emily Faye Ratner, say Morgan's suicide is part of a "pattern, practice, and culture of deliberate indifference and culpable negligence towards inmates' serious medical needs, including risk of suicide, while in custody of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office."

How the sheriff houses mentally ill inmates is the subject of court-ordered changes under the consent decree approved by U.S. District Court Judge Lance Africk. The consent decree is the settlement reached after inmate advocates and the U.S. Department of Justice sued claiming unconstitutional conditions.

Africk approved the consent decree on June 6, 2013; it went into effect in October and includes requirements for improvements to mental health care but not a specific timeline in which to accomplish the changes.

The consent decree requires that the sheriff's office provide mental health and suicide prevention including "adequate and timely treatment" for suicidal inmates, a "continuum of services" and a "treatment plan" that is "specifically tailored to the prisoner's diagnoses and problems."

The sheriff's office must also ensure that "prisoners receive psychotropic medications in a timely manner" and that suicidal inmates are held in "suicide resistant" cells and checked on every 15 minutes.

During his intake screening following his arrest, Morgan told the medical staff that he was suicidal, had been taking the anti-psychotic medication Seroquel for three years, and that he was previously treated for schizophrenia at Algiers Behavioral Health Center, the lawsuit claims.

He was placed on suicide watch in the jail's psychiatric unit but his requests for medication were ignored, his family asserts in the lawsuit. Eight days later, he was found lying on the floor of his cell in a "near-catatonic state."

After being sent to a local hospital for an evaluation, Morgan was returned to the jail and after a short stint in the psychiatric unit was placed in general population.

He was then moved to an isolation cell to "punish him for some perceived misbehavior," the lawsuit states.

Morgan's sister, Felicia Wilson, said she was told it was because he was found in possession of a cell phone. Cell phones are considered contraband, and possession of them can result in criminal charges.

Sheriff deputies left Morgan alone and unmonitored for long stretches of time in the isolation cell that had "multiple tie-off points" that inmates can use to hang themselves, the lawsuit claims.

Morgan was found a short time later, hanging from the bars of his holding cell with his jumpsuit tied around his neck. The Orleans Parish coroner ruled the death a suicide.

"Instead of providing adequate, appropriate, and necessary care and treatment to Mr. Morgan, the defendants failed in their professional duties and their legal obligations," the lawsuit states. "Mr. Morgan was treated in a callous, harsh, and indifferent manner by the defendants, resulting in his death by suicide."